Sometimes, it is best to step back to get an idea of what is going on.  It is easy to get lost in the day to day events on STEEM without seeing the bigger picture.  When we do this, we often see that things we are focusing upon are not as paramount as we believe.

I joined STEEM in August of last year.  Since that time we witnessed a fair bit of growth in spite of a sign up process that is slow.  My account number is roughly 318,000; we are now at or near 1.1M,  Many of us believe that once HF20 goes into effect, we will see this number start to accelerate even higher.

A big deal is made about the distribution of the token and how the power is in the hands of a few.  This is certainly true since we still have a lot of SP in a small number of accounts.  Yet this is where people need contrast.   Many feel that without pro-active moves, we are only seeing the "rich get richer".  While this is true in the fiat world since that system is devised to operate like that, we are seeing it less so on STEEM.

Let us take a look at where things stood 13 months ago.

![mvest812017.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmZSxWYLQqN7kJHT3WRruvHpoUhuiB4p2jZ2R3m92TU6dQ)

Total MVest 336,932

Here is the percentage of the total SP holdings at that time:

Whales 75.4%
Orcas 14.9%
Dolphins 7.2%
Minnows 2.14%
Red Fish .01%
Inactive .4%

The most noticeable thing is that the Whales had more than 75% of the SP and the Whales/Orcas had over 91%.

Next we have the account breakdown on that same date.

![account812017.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmeP74Ra2JEHZg4bfsPdKnSrTLHrcVeJ144kqazcS6VNDf)

There were 289,004 accounts with only 6,318 having more than roughly 500 SP or greater.

Let us contrast that with how things were as of the end of August 2018, 13 months later.

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmV58aiw6to6p4E5m6iZcmUQgWLR3kDWiJgfVdCoRHsEcq)

Total MVests 395,377

Whales 59.90%
Orcas 18.21%
Dolphins 12.05%
Minnows 6.40%
Red Fish 1.25%
Inactive 2.19%

During that time, the MVests went up about 60K while the Whales total went down 20K.  That means that the power went down in absolute terms in addition to a percentage basis.

*Please note that SP provides influence on the STEEM blockchain.  Powering down means one gives up that influence.*

The other change we see is their influence went from over 75% to 59%.  This is a rather big shift in a little over a year especially when we know there is a slow sign up process.

Now for the account breakdown.

![image.png](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmdPY4Ry6mSUnUy5JF1XC3xFdP9G9BEy9X3bcpYrpgYBRj)

There are now about 1.12M accounts with 10,784 having more than the approximate 500 SP level.

Changes by percentage (By SP then by Accounts)

Whales        -20.58%              -14.29%
Orcas            +22.21%             +25.66%
Dolphins       +67.36%            +52.65%
Minnows      +199.06%          +77.62
Red Fish       +22800%          +174.95%
Inactive        +447.50%        +321.11%

This provides some real interesting data.  

To start, the Whales not only got less powerful, there are fewer of them.  That is the only category that shrunk.

The other thing that pops out is that the growth of the Orcas SP trailed their account growth.  This is the only category that experienced this.  The other 4 categories had a growth rate in SP that EXCEEDED their account rate.  This means that not only were more accounts participating, each account has statistically more SP than 13 months ago.

*We might want to overlook the growth of the SP rate in the Red Fish category since I have a feeling the SP read on that date had to be a mistake.*

The other day I posted how the STEEM blockchain is changing and the fact that many larger accounts are delegating SP to applications that are upvoting content creation from smaller accounts on their platform.  This, in turn, is actually fulfilling the idea that many had to start: that smaller accounts are rewarded for their content by larger accounts.

https://busy.org/@taskmaster4450/why-applications-like-tribesteemup-are-fixing-steem-problems

My view is this will move these numbers even further along in terms of the distribution as we proceed forward.  Not long after I joined, I realized that the answer to this entire situation is more people.  These numbers bear that out.  For all the complaints about the rich getting richer and the Whales only doing things that serve them, the fact is the system is working the exact opposite.  More power, today, is in the hands of the smaller accounts as compared to where were were 13 months ago.  

The simple fact is that as more people join, get active, and start amassing rewards of any size, their accounts grow.  When it comes to the structure of the reward pool, since 75% is given to authors, this means that the larger accounts cannot post at a rate that keeps pace.  Again, the growth of the SP exceeding the account number growth exemplifies this.

In closing, I just want to say the smaller accounts, contrary to what many believe, are making more money on the STEEM blockchain and they are being rewarded at a rate HIGHER than the larger accounts.  

We are seeing a redistribution of power occurring right before our eyes.  

Personally, there are some issues that we need to deal with on the STEEM blockchain but worrying about the power distribution is not one of them.  

As I post each month, the system is working.

I want to thank @arcange for the data provided and the charts used.
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